


After

by Corpus



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: After the end of the game, fan-made epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 05:38:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4292799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corpus/pseuds/Corpus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote this short fanfic for OFF a few years (???) ago for an anon on tumblr, and now that I have an AO3 account I decided to post it here because I'm still fond of it. Takes place after the events of the game. Please enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	After

Batter was dead. Zacharie looked down at the beast on the ground. It stared back at him with unblinking eyes, black tongue lolling out the side of its bloodstained beak. Flies swarmed on its injuries and the stench of rot filled the room, strong enough to taste.  
How long had it been?  
A few days?  
Weeks?  
Or… even longer?

The world outside this white-walled room was empty. Empty and changeless, with the white horizon stretching out as far as the eye could see. Empty of anything that could truly call itself alive.  
The farms were barricaded and the mines were inaccessible ever since Dedan was slaughtered, and the library and factories were abandoned after the same happened to Japhet and Enoch. Sucre was gone, and Pablo had sunk into depression, still mourning his brother. Secretaries wandered over the land. It wasn’t even worth going outside anymore. Besides, Zacharie’s customers were dead.  
All thanks to this pitiful dead thing lying at Zacharie’s feet.  
Zacharie heard a sniff behind him and turned. The Judge padded into the room, his normal toothy grin knotted into a scowl.  
“Why you would ever come here is beyond me.”  
He stopped and sat beside Zacharie, tail twitching.  
“He’s dead. After all the destruction and violence he meted out, it’s the least he deserves.”  
Zacharie nodded, “I know.” He put his hands in his pockets and scuffed the floor with his shoe. They sat in silence for a moment longer, listening to the faint buzzing of flies, until Pablo stood and turned to leave.  
“He’s a puppet. Deserving of death. Leave him, and forget about him. It’s better this way.”  
He shook his head at the corpse and trotted out the door, leaving Zacharie alone. He sighed softly.  
Before the Batter came, the world was populated and alive. Although… it didn’t flourish. It didn’t grow and it didn’t thrive. The Elsen were content with their day-in, day-out schedule under their torturous bosses. Working for their sugar dependence. Digging themselves even deeper come payday.  
Was the world worse off now they were all gone?  
Zacharie didn’t think so.

When the Batter arrived, things changed. Zacharie could finally be the travelling merchant he was meant to be. Batter’s mission, as horrific as it was, was a break in the monotony. Batter fought, people died, Zacharie trailed along. He missed those days.  
And now Batter was dead.  
He was dead, leaving Zacharie behind in an unforgiving white world. Pablo may be content to live in this purgatory, but Zacharie certainly wouldn’t accept it.  
“Heh.”  
Zacharie smirked behind his mask, Pablo wasn’t going to like this. He pulled a small card out of his pocket and looked at it.  
Emblazoned across one side in curly black calligraphy was “Joker”.  
“Ehehehe.”  
Batter was dead, but he certainly wasn’t gone.  
Zacharie was ready for some excitement.


End file.
